Editorial Notes - February 4, 2009

©Lora Tryon / 2008-2009

COLLABORATIONS and partnerships are fundamental to the success of CIT projects. They “add value” to projects by bringing people and resources, often with diverse perspectives on land and conservation, together in the pursuit of common goals: to help communities make effective transitions.

This issue of the CIT Information Resource highlights several CIT collaborations, in projects as diverse as housing, conservation, and sustainable community development. Our featured photo by Lora Tryon, shows the Millard Creek estuary in the Comox Valley. It's a fitting image, as this small watershed is the site of a collaboration between the conservation & stewardship (C&S) sector and local government in the Comox Valley, a collaboration that should make a positive impact on land use policies and development in the region.

As our guest columnist, Kim Stephens talks about the ground-breaking work being done by CAVI (Convening for Action on Vancouver Island). Kim's focus is on the "Learning Lunches" hosted by CAVI in several Island communities, involving the partnership of local governments, environmental non-governmental organizations, provincial ministries, federal government departments, as well as organizatons like BC Water & Waste Association and the Real Estate Foundation of BC. One of the outcomes of this informal series is the innovative Millard/Piercy project.

"When Things Slow Down” looks at the kinds of things land use practitioners are doing now that construction and development-driven workloads are easing off. As well as investing in much-needed planning, it's a good time to be undertaking the kind of data-gathering work being done through projects like the Millard/Piercy watershed inventory.

The third and final in a series of columns on Climate Change challenges land use practitioners to re-imagine our understanding of what our towns and cities look like, how they function, what we need to do to adapt to not only changing climatic conditions, but the financial impact of these changes. Again, collaborations like CAVI and those taking shape in the Comox Valley suggest that many partners are looking for ways to go beyond jurisdictional limitations to address issues that call for regional and watershed-based approaches.

This issue’s interview with Tim Pringle, Director of Special Programs at the Real Estate Foundation, and responsible for CIT, focuses on recent housing research being done in northern BC communities. As Tim explains, this is not just about shelter or land use; it’s also about the economic and social well-being of communities. While the focus is on northern communities, we think our readers in the rest of BC will find the preliminary findings and Tim’s observations helpful in deepening the conversation about community sustainability.

For our next issue (arriving in your “in-box” mid March 2009) we’re working on materials related to: reviews of current CIT projects, an introduction to the thorny issue of performance-based approaches to land use, and some thoughts, several months after the event, about the October 2008 Rural Revitalization conference in Prince George, and more conversations with land use practitioners. Your contributions are welcome! Let us know how we’re doing. Let us know where you think we should be putting our attention. Give our writers and researchers feedback on the conversations they’re engaged in.

Please note that the CIT Information Resource is still in development. We are making a number of changes to make the site more functional as a place for conversation. We’d like to thank the Real Estate Institute of BC, and particularly Chris Alexandrovich, for helping us keep the conversation going by hosting this issue.

You can email me directly at "editor (at) communtytransition.org". Or, you can contact Jen or Tim or Karin Kirkpatrick (Executive Director at the Real Estate Foundation as of November 1st) through the Foundation (www.realestatefoundation.com). We look forward to hearing from you!

hans peter meyer
Editor, Communities in Transition Information Resource

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©hanspetermeyer.ca / 2009